MSTC students rally around 11-year-old boy with bone cancer

MSTC students aim to raise $10,000 on GoFundMe.com for Stevens Point boy with bone cancer.
MELANIE LAWDER/Daily Tribune Media

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Courtney Kostuchowski, a criminal justice-corrections instructor at Mid-State Technical College, and her students hope to raise $10,000 on GoFundMe.com for Isaac Mlodik, a Stevens Point fifth-grader who was diagnosed with osteosarcoma. If they can raise the money, Kostuchowski has promised to shave her head into a yellow-dyed faux hawk.(Photo: Melanie Lawder/Daily Tribune Media)Buy Photo

If you walk down the hallways of Mid-State Technical College's Wisconsin Rapids campus, you'll likely see yellow bands dangling from the wrists of students and faculty.

The wristbands do not signify membership in a school club or an academic track. Rather, the bracelets — which are branded with the words "Isaac Strong" — represent a group of students' effort to raise more than $15,000 for a Stevens Point fifth-grader diagnosed with bone cancer.

In mid-December, students in MSTC's criminal justice-corrections program learned that 11-year-old Isaac Mlodik, a student at St. Bronislava Elementary School in Plover, was diagnosed with osteosarcoma.

The roughly 35 students decided to contribute to the cause, said MSTC criminal justice-corrections instructor Courtney Kostuchowski.

Isaac Mlodik.(Photo: Contributed.)

"They put their heads together and said, 'How are we going to raise the most money in the easiest way?'" Kostuchowski said.

They launched a Facebook page, ordered yellow wristbands to sell and set up a GoFundMe.com account with a goal of raising $10,000 by March. The money raised will cover the Mlodiks' travel costs for medical appointments and for expenses not covered by insurance, Kostuchowski said, noting that the additional income is intended to "ease the burden."

The students named their fundraiser "Shavin' for a Reason" because if they raise the $10,000 on GoFundMe by their deadline, Kostuchowski promised to sculpt her hair into a faux hawk dyed yellow, the ribbon color designated for bone cancer, for one week and then shave her head.

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Mid-State Technical College students sell yellow bracelets branded with the words “Isaac Strong.” Proceeds from the bracelets, which cost $3 each, will go to Isaac Mlodik, a fifth-grader from Stevens Point who was diagnosed with osteosarcoma.(Photo: Melanie Lawder/Daily Tribune Media)

In one month, the students have raised $7,000 of their $10,000 goal on GoFundMe and sold roughly two-thirds of their 1,900 yellow wristbands at $3 each. If they reach their goal, they will raise almost $16,000 for Isaac's family.

Kostuchowski said she makes it a point to get her corrections students involved with the community. Each semester, students pick a community project to sponsor. In the past, they have raised money for the troops, injured police officers and injured police dogs, among other causes.

"When students are going into the criminal justice career, in general, they're going into a service-orientated career and it's important for them to learn to do good things for other people," Kostuchowski said. "Serving their community is eventually what they're going to take an oath to do."

For criminal justice-corrections student Austin Schlachter, the experience has been an eye-opening one.

"It's pretty interesting to see just how much people really do give, especially for a little boy they don't know," he said.

The MSTC students involved in the fundraiser have yet to meet Isaac, but they are eager to. If they meet their goal, Kostuchowski said she would organize an event, most likely in March, where Isaac could shave her head if he was feeling well. So far, Kostuchowski said five other people have pledged to shave their heads.

"I'm probably most excited about eventually — and hopefully — getting to meet Isaac," said criminal justice-corrections student Ashley Struzynski.

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Mid-State Technical College students brandish “Isaac Strong” bracelets in support of a Stevens Point fifth-grader who was diagnosed with bone cancer.(Photo: Melanie Lawder/Daily Tribune Media)

And the fundraiser doesn't stop once class is over. In addition to being a criminal justice-corrections student, Kevin Peters also works as a server at Harvey's Corner Pub in Ellis. For a little more than a month, he donated his server tips to the "Shavin' for a Reason" fundraiser.

"Tips increased once I told them what I was doing with the tips," Peters said, noting that he was surprised how many of his customers knew the Mlodiks.

"For me, I have two kids myself," Peters said. "I'm blessed that they're very healthy, and I would hope that if I was ever in the situation that his family is in, that people would step up for me."